KUTZTOWN, Pa. (February 26, 2011) – The Kutztown University women's basketball team got a sneak preview of life without its wonderful seniors during its 67-58 setback to Millersville University in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division game Saturday afternoon at Keystone Arena. (BOXSCORE)
Before the game, Kutztown honored its terrific triumvirate of seniors Meredith Starr (Richmond, VA/Monacan), Kristen Murray (Harrisburg, PA/Trinity), and Melissa McQuade (Pittsburgh, PA/Shaler). During the game, junior Brittany Le Van led the Golden Bears with a season-high 15 points. Sophomores Steph Zewe (Lewistown, PA/Indian Valley) and Ashley Wood (Limerick, PA/Spring-Ford) added 11 points each, but it wasn't enough to overcome a slow start in which KU trailed by double digits five minutes into the contest.
Despite the defeat, the Golden Bears (15-11 overall, 8-6 PSAC East) is headed to the PSAC playoffs for the third straight season. Kutztown will open as the No. 4 seed and travel to top-seeded Bloomsburg Tuesday night in a PSAC quarterfinal contest at Nelson Field House. Game time is 7 p.m. Bloomsburg beat Kutztown twice this season.
“I think our final record is an accurate reflection of how we played this season,” Wood said. “There were some games we played really well in and then there were others where we didn't play as well. We always seemed to be in the games and we're looking forward to the playoffs and playing better on Tuesday than we did today.”
McQuade and Starr enjoyed better moments at Keystone Arena than what they experienced Saturday afternoon. Kutztown's seniors received white gift bags from their underclass teammates and framed 8 x 10 action shots from KU women's head coach Janet Malouf. Starr ended with eight points. McQuade scored seven points, grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds, and handed out six assists.
Meanwhile, Millersville (21-5, 11-3) will meet West Chester in another quarterfinal game Tuesday night. Both East quarterfinal contests are playoff rematches from last season. West Chester upset Millersville in the first round last season.
In the West, fourth-seeded Mercyhurst will visit top-seeded Edinboro and second-seeded California will host third-seeded Indiana, Pa. The semifinals and championship will be Friday and Saturday on the home court of the highest remaining East Division seed.
The Marauders were led by Aurielle Mosley's 22 points. Her streak of 10 straight double-doubles came to an end as she finished with six rebounds and four blocked shots. However, Mosley's running mate, Mashira Newman was a tour-de-force. She stuffed the stat sheet with 19 points, eight assists, eight steals and six rebounds.
Also reaching double figures for Millersville was guard Sophia Waters, who added 17 points.
Kutztown never led in the game after tying the game 2-2 on a Zewe layup. The closest the Golden Bears got was within 41-37 following a Zewe short jumper with 13 minutes, 56 seconds remaining.
Le Van scored 13 of her points after intermission on 4-of-6 shooting.
Considering all of the injuries Kutztown had to endure this season, qualifying for the playoffs and finishing with a winning record is a nice accomplishment. It was just hard to detect any measure of satisfaction from the players as they exited the locker room. The Golden Bears are confident heading to Bloomsburg.
“It's the third season and everybody starts with the same record,” Kutztown head coach Janet Malouf said. “I am glad that Brittany and Steph had nice games. I don't think we played as well as we could've today and that was disappointing.”
